TY - JOUR T1 - Chief complaint: “He predicts earthquakes” JF - Medical Humanities JO - J Med Humanit DO - 10.1136/medhum-2017-011227 SP - medhum-2017-011227 AU - Ron Louie Y1 - 2017/05/03 UR - http://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2017/05/03/medhum-2017-011227.abstract N2 - Everyone working there, except the pediatrician, spoke two or more languages.For each young patient, staff would crystallize the medical issue, a terse “chief complaint,”using the parents' own words, on why they were bothering to see a Western doctor,even when the children didn't, wouldn't or couldn't complain for themselves.It's a parent's concern, via a native vernacular, through an interpreter's ear,twisted with some medical phrasing, a flashing linguistic triple flip,leaving the doctor to decipher the … ER -